pfizer/biontech vaccines which has been loaded into precisely refrigerated containers and being transported to more than 630 locations nationwide. according to general gus perna, chief operating officer of operation warp speed, the vaccines will arrive at hundreds of sites across the united states on monday, tuesday, and wednesday of this week. the department of health and human services will determine who receives the vaccine first. the first injections are expected to be given by monday to high risk health care workers. officials say 40 million doses will be administered by the end of december. and that is enough to vaccinate 20 million americans. >> while this moment is extraordinary in time and i'm proud to be here announcing the distribution, we have a lot of work to do. we are not taking a victory lap. we know that the road ahead of us will be tough.

we know that situations will occur. but we will figure it out together. >> all right. so from what we're hearing, it's likely that most average americans will not see their first dose of the vaccine for at least a couple of months. so use san tan sizhand sanitizer mask, practice social distancing. this morning, infections in the united states now sole 16,136,409 since the start of the pandemic. the death toll is 298,579. we're getting more than 2.5 thousand a day. supporters of the outgoing

president, donald j. trump, took to the streets in washington, d.c. large crowds gathered near the white house demanding that the results of the 2020 presidential election be overturned just ahead of the official electoral college vote, by the way, which will seal joe biden's presidential victory tomorrow. trump ally former national security advise and her recent pardon recipient michael flynn addressed the cloud which included many maskless rallygoers, defying a city order which demanded masks. the supreme court rejected a texas lawsuit backed by more than 125 gop members of congress to void 24 million votes in four battleground states. [ shouting ] sulfur there was also violence around these protests.

there was violence around these protests in d.c. and elsewhere yesterday. "the new york times" reporting, quote, in some places angry confrontations between protesters and counterprotesters escalated into violence. four people were stabbed and police declared a riot in olympia, washington where one person was shot. in yet another legal defeat for the trump team, a federal judge in milwaukee yesterday tossed out the president's latest effort to overturn election results in wisconsin. the judge dismissed the case ruling it failed as a matter of law and fact, the judge adding, this court has allowed the plaintiff the chance to make his case and he has lost on the merits. even still, the outgoing president is not giving up on his bogus claims of fraud. trump is considering appointing a special counsel to look into his baseless fraud allegations

and into joe biden's son hunter, "the wall street journal" reporting the president has expressed frustration with attorney general william barr. this morning, as the president continued to push false charges of election fraud on fox news, which we won't play because it's baseless and false, but it's important to note that it's happening because the language about a stolen election, the conspiracy fiction the president is pushing, will continue to fuel a republican base that does not believe in the same set of facts as the rest of the country and the outgoing president appears to be willing to go to extreme lengths to stoke fear and anxiety among that population. this morning i'm joining you from houston, texas, the latest stop in our serious of reports, "velshi" across america. with this new pfizer/biontech vaccine being launched, folks in this part of the country, like the others we've been to this

week, are looking to stay afloat through what experts say will be a dark and difficult winter as covid-19 cases continue to surge. in a moment, a local houston business owner who has managed her way through these unprecedented times and offering hope to others and struggle mightily. her bakery, sweets by belen, has continued to operate with her five employees and buck the trend that has seen so many people falter over the past ten months. we'll tell you how she managed to make it so far. she'll tell you herself how she plans to get through the next few months in just a few moments. i do want to go back to our biggest story of the day, maybe the week, maybe the month, maybe of 2020, the vaccine. let's bring in nbc's ellison barber, outside the pfizer plant in portage, michigan. ellison, tell us what's been happening so far. >> reporter: hey, ali. you can see over my shoulder, there is another truck that has

arrived here at this plant, a fedex truck. we were told earlier this morning there would be two main trucks leaving in the initial group of trucks. we actually saw three leave. we were told the two trucks would have shipments of the vaccine, one of them for states west of the mississippi, the other for states east of the mississippi. about 189 boxes filled with the covid vaccine made their way out of this plant in the last hour. those 189 boxes will be making their way to all 50 states. what i am thinking this fedex truck is here for, what we're expecting at some point later this morning, later today, is for another shipment to go out containing vaccine shipments for the four u.s. territories. so that will be it for today. once that actually does happen. and then there will be obviously another shipment going out tomorrow and another one day after that. the army general who is in charge of leading operation warp

speed has said 145 sites across all 50 states will receive shipments of this vaccine by monday morning. more will go out tuesday, more on wednesday. and then that should be it for the initial 2.9 million doses of this vaccine that in most states will be heading directly to health care workers and people living in long term care facilities. so right now we are waiting to see what happens with this next fedex truck. but what we saw this morning was a very careful process of workers at this pfizer plant taking trays containing vials of the covid vaccine, packing it into a box filled with dry ice with a thermometer on the outside to monitor the temperature. the shipments will go to lansing to make their way to shipment centers in memphis, tennessee, and louisville, kentucky, ali.

>> ellison, thank you. we'll continue to cover this with you. ellison barber is outside the pfizer plant, it's the plant where the vaccine is being made in portage, michigan. joining me now, julian castro, former secretary of housing and urban development in the obama administration, former 2020 presidential candidate and a texas native, former mayor of san antonio. also joining us, an msnbc contributor and professor at the columbia school of journalism. gentlemen, thank you for being with us. secretary castro, i've spent time with you in this state many years ago, you know how much i love texas, it's a country unto itself, but why were you all trying to wreck democracy this week with this supreme court case? >> ali, welcome back to texas, a very joyous moment this morning to see that vaccine on its way

to so many people who need it in our country. look, don't judge texas by the acts of a frivolous small. this lawsuit by attorney general paxton, who has been under indictment for the last few years now, and may soon be under more indictments, was frivolous. it was foolish. and i'm glad the supreme court dispatched it summarily, because joe biden won the election, we all know that, we need to live in reality. and we need to make sure that between now and january 20, congress does what it should so that people in this country can get by, can survive. and i have no doubt when the biden administration begins that we're going to have a competent, well-intentioned chief executive who will help ensure we get past this pandemic. this lawsuit by attorney general paxton had no merit. even trump's supreme court

justices threw it out very quickly. >> i am concerned about the 126 republican members of congress, about senator ron johnson this morning, carrying on about this, about the violence last night in olympia, washington, in portland, in d.c., about the administrators who said in washington last night if they let joe biden get on that inauguration stage, we'll take it down ourselves. i would have liked that the supreme court decision or lack of decision to hear that case would have had some impact, but nobody cares. these trump supporters don't seem to care, as far as they're concerned this election was fraudulent and they're going to finish it. >> sure. i'll say it's good to be on with secretary castro, you know, who i think has been a real voice about these issues even back

when his candidacy was going on. i think there is a key kind of indicator of the situation we're looking at. if you think back, all the way back to the consequentivention, republican convention this past simple, the curious decision to have no platform. their platform was trump. whatever his particular concerns were, whatever his preprogresstive preprogress ti prerogatives were, his incombinatioi inclinati inclinations. he has departed from reality into a mythological world and they've followed him off the cliff. the implications of this have been apparent from the outset. there has always been the threat of danger associated with this movement, beginning from the point when he referred to mexicans as rapists, beginning

with the violence we saw of people echoing his language, we saw in el paso at the walmart. this is not the kind of novel development here. the final thing i'll say about this that i think adds another layer of concern, is that the sense of righteousness had led them to pursue what they thought were legal mechanisms that would allow them to achieve the goals they wanted electorally. the problem is they've exhausted those, that all the institutions, which they've distrusted more than they trust trump, have seemed to fail them, so that only leaves them extra legal mechanisms. i think we've now reached a situation that is probably even more dangerous than it was before the supreme court dispatched that lawsuit. >> and i wouldn't have thought,

professor cobb -- we have another issue, despite the people who do not want to accept the results of the election and the coronavirus, that's the number of people who will run out of their extend benefits by the end of this month, and the number of businesses who i've been talking to who say, i'm glad this vaccine is there, but i can't wait four months, five months, six months for normalcy, i'm out of money and there's no more money coming from the government. you were the former secretary of hissing and urban development, you understand people who are going from poverty to homelessness. how do we fix this? >> you're right, ali, a lot of families are on the brink of evix, it's unconscionabl konevi

eviction, on the brink of poverty. we have folks about to fall off this cliff that we've been talking about and that we've seen long lines at food banks, people who say they're only a few weeks away from ending up on the streets, small businesses that are about to shutter or already are shuttered. there are 12 million renters in our country right now who on average are $5,800 behind on rent. if an eviction moratorium lifts, it's not like they can say okay, i can scrounge up this month's rent. it's, where's all the back rent, that's what the landlord will be asking them. who has $5,800 to put down? you'll have people kicked to the curb, homeless. congress needs to do his job. specifically mitch mcconnell and his republican buddies in the senate need to find it within

themselves to actually try and understand, in these dire times, right near the holidays, the needs of everyday american families. these families are republicans, they're democrats, they're independents, they're in red states, they're in blue states, all over the country, they're hurting and congress needs to act during this next couple of weeks. >> it breaks my heart, we were showing video of food banks, people in dallas going and getting milk and eggs ahead of thanksgiving. it breaks my heart that that has to happen in 2020 in america. we've managed to get this vaccine out there. we can mobilize, we can actually fix things, yet this republican senate refuses to do this one thing that is so desperately needed. thank you, julian castro, former obama secretary of housing and urban development and former presidential candidate. jelani cobb is staff writer at

"the atlantic." it's an historic day today, pfizer has released its vaccine, and starting at the top of the next hour pfizer will begin packing more trucks for yet more shipments. stay with msnbc for the latest on the vaccine rollout. meanwhile i'm here in houston, texas taking a look at the impact covid has had on small businesses and the inventive solutions that entrepreneurs are employing to stay afloat. in you have specific suggestions or want to share your strategies, send them to me at mystory@velshi.com. plus a big premiere on msnbc, "the sunday show" kicks off with a bang as jonathan capehart speaks with former attorney general eric holder. it's the first one, don't miss it. i'll be right back.

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you're once again watching the first shipment of pfizer vaccines which left the manufacturing facility in portage, michigan not long ago. they're going to fedex and ups hubs across the country. chicago area hospitals will be some of the first to receive the vaccines for its hospital workers. nbc news correspondent jay gray is at the rush university medical center in chicago. jay, tell me how this is going to work. are the vaccines enough for the first round of all the medical workers there in chicago, never mind illinois? >> reporter: yeah, no, not even for all the medical workers here in chicago, ali. but they are prepared and ready here. you have to think because of proximity, we're talking about a 2, 2 1/2 hour drive from where this vaccine is leaving to get to chicago, that this will be one of the areas to see some of the first of the vaccine. friday they went through a dry run here.

what they've done basically is close down the main lobby. it's turned into a covid-19 vaccination center. they have booths lined up here, health care workers will get their first dose of the medicine and come back three weeks later for the second dose here. they say they can do as many as a thousand people a day. they're expecting to get about 2,000 doses on this first run. so they expect to have two mass vaccination days. it's a voluntary effort for those who work in the hospital, the front line workers. talking to those inside, they say they're ready, they're anxious to get this vaccine. and they hope that more comes online quickly and that it comes here. they expect this to be a process that begins this week but continues for as long as necessary. that's going to be months. >> jay, thank you for your reporting. jay gray is in chicago. west of where i stand, in a

far rural part of texas, currently one of the fastest growing coronavirus hotspots in the nation. from "the new york times," quote, as cases soar in texas, hospitals are filling up from el paso to lubbock. the big bend region is especially vulnerable with just one hospital for 12,000 square miles. several higher level care hospitals across west texas are full. recently in el paso they had to bring in mobile morgues because they were so overrun by the virus. doctors fear they could soon run out of options because they just don't have the capacity to deal with the surge in coronavirus hospitalizations. the vaccine can't come soon enough. until it does, there's still going to be the current surge we're in. while it's great news that the vaccine is on rouen route to th state as we speak, there will be problems getting it to the people who need it the most. joining me now, a physician and

also with me, a physician in presidio county, texas. dr. melendez, let's talk about where you are in hidalgo county and what the challenges have been both with covid and high infection rates and high death rates and now with the vaccine coming to you. >> yes, dothank you so much for having me. as you know, the last time we spoke, we probably had 1,200 people in the hospital, now we have 220. our numbers dropped about, oh, gosh, six weeks ago. we still have five to ten people dying every single day. and we still have over 20% of our hospital in our county that are filled with covid patients. and so for us the vaccine can't come soon enough. and the numbers just never drop to the number that we wanted.

although there's room for optimism, certainly in south texas it's far from over. >> and it's a different story for you, dr. schwartz, you are the health authority in the area in which you're in. you have not got a lockdown. you wish people would be able to stay home and were instructed to do so. in fact your county judge, which in texas are not what we in the rest of the country know as judges but are the chief executive in the county, have suggested doing that anyway but you're worried about the consequences from your state which just doesn't support this. >> we're having a very difficult time getting supplies, getting any kind of support from the governor. we're getting resistance to lockdown. we're getting all kinds of roadblocks for trying to handle this. and it's very disconcerting. we're in a very unpopulated area.

there's probably less within an area that's bigger than most small eastern states, 20,000 people, we're barely at that range. we have a hospital here that has 24 active acute care beds. and the nearby town of -- well, the closest town near to us is midland, texas, or odessa, texas. we just found out they're not even on the list to get vaccines right now. so we have a culture at the border that is not conducive to change. they're doing things just like they always did. it's made isolation, it's made distancing very impossible. >> dr. melendez, i'm going to ask -- sorry, dr. schwartz, i didn't mean to interrupt you. i'm going to ask my colleagues to put up a map of the so-called vaccine deserts. the redder the blocks there, the

further you are from where the vaccine will be. dr. melendez, this pfizer/biontech vaccine is a great vaccine but it needs to be stored at negative 94 degrees fahrenheit. you and dr. schwartz are in places where health care is harder to come by and now even the savior, the vaccine, will be complex. >> you make such a fantastic point. it's so insightful that you're aware of these details which from a distance appear to be trivial but when you're where the rubber hits the road, they are dramatic details. first of all, gosh, my heart goes out to my colleague who you have on with me right now. as you know, in july we had 60 people die a day and you needed to die to get a bed in the icu. my heart goes out to you and my advice is hang in there, things will improve, and with reference

specifically to vaccine and the distribution, we're extremely fortunate, we have 10,500 vaccines in route to distribution centers. we've had the advantage of being in this for nine full months, three months ago we were forced to really prepare. for us, the administration of these vaccines seems to be well in line and we're excited that by monday, our five hospitals, our five major hospitals are expecting to start vaccination. and as far as storage, all these five facilities as well as our health department i think are in pretty good shape to store at least the first 10,500 vaccines that we expect to be delivered by monday. >> dr. schwartz, you have a testing issue, actually the whole country has a testing issue, but you've got a uniquely serious one in that the people who work there have come down with covid, you're nowhere close to a testing venue and you have

more than 40 to 50% in your county who are antimaskers and don't want to wear masks anyway. >> that's really true, and we've had no reliable figures, is one of the big problems. when we don't have proper testing, we have mobile testing groups come in but the results don't always go to the states, they go to the patients. the only way, many times, we're able to find out who has the coronavirus is when the patients actually call our clinic or our track and trace hotline here. so we're missing a lot of cases. also some people, households, have covid, they're afraid they're not going to be allowed to work so if they're asymptomatic they simply go to work anyway and never get tested. so this has made the spread more rampant here and it's very, very difficult. i can't come up with a way to solve that problem. >> no, it's a complicated one. dr. melendez, you and i have talked a few times about these

health care disparities in this country. we didn't solve that for this infection, it's kind of amazing, because it is like putting someone on the moon to get this vaccine developed and out as quickly as we are doing, what we are going to witness on tv for the next 72 hours is going to be absolutely amazing. but we haven't fixed the underlying structural problems that the two of you are telling me about. and we're going to have more pandemics and we have a health care issue in this country that just needs to be more fairly distributed. >> yeah, i would agree, besides having the obvious cultural ethnic biases, i hate to sound political, i want to stay away from it, but there's certainly been some political, ethnic, baked-in disparities for such a long time. i truly believe in kind of an embarrassing way, i've been a doctor for 37 years, that we've put a lot of emphasis on the profits of medicine. those lines of services that

have been highly profitable, whether renal transplants, surgeries, have been priorities. but we've been brought to our knees, understanding, through this pandemic, that both health resources that are required to keep a community in an excellent state of health or a better state of health, those resources that are required to keep people's diabetes, hypertension, obesity, controlled, have not been prioritized. and for that reason here in south texas, we were the highest death rate in the country at 5%, now fortunately even though it's a horrible number, we're approaching 3%. when you add to it our almost 50% of the hispanic culture down where i live is afraid of the vaccine. i think part of that is the education behind it, we need to educate people on it. you're very insightful in your thought, and my recommendation would be, let's refocus on

getting those resources, when we're not in a crisis, so we're in better shape for the next one. >> good advice. dr. melendez, good to see you again, i'm glad things are improving even though they're still as bad as they are. dr. j.p. schwartz is the presidio county health authority in texas. thanks, gentlemen, continue your hard work and we'll stay in touch with you. we're in houston, texas as delivery trucks have started rolling out from the pfizer facility with a newly-authorized vaccine in tow. it will be a few months at least before americans can return to some sense of normalcy but those months could feel like years to the millions of small businesses in the united states that are simply trying to stay afloat through one of the worst economic eras in modern history. yesterday a spent time at a small business in the houston area that is struggling but remaining optimistic about its prospects of surviving this

current wave of coronavirus. it's a black-owned winery about 30 minutes from here. check out the story. >> reporter: everybody has heard of houston, texas. it's the largest city in the lonestar state. but if you travel about 30 miles west, you'll find the city of katie which is home to a winery owned by a marine corps veteran. >> i served two tours overseas. >> reporter: had it occurred to you to run a business? >> yes, sir, it was always something i wanted to do since i was little. >> reporter: how did you get into this business? >> i was going through therapy for ptsd because of an incident in the marine corps. they told me to find a hobby. and i tried cake making and i don't want to eat anything that i cook, so i landed on wine making. with every batch i felt like i was bringing myself back to

life. >> reporter: with her two grandmothers as inspiration for the name, jennifer launched erma rose winery in february 2018. she runs it with the help of her mother and brother. but the main driving force was her father. >> my dad had started going to therapy with me to help me figure out my triggers and stuff like that. he just became the backbone in me finally taking the step to make the wine, i was afraid to take the leap. he was like, go ahead and do it. he was my first taste tester and he would always get so excited when i made a batch. >> she and my husband were moving forward with it. i was kind of in the background. and then right before our very first event, he passed away unexpectedly. >> reporter: the family did their best to rebound and eventually the wine started to take off. but in march, covid hit, bringing business to a halt. >> those first two weeks were

rough, i had to furlough employees. it was sad. everything was uncertainty. i didn't know if i would have my business. >> reporter: how has it been since then? >> up and down. as corona spikes, we'll see a decreasing crowd. but we still offer our customers curbside service. we do to-go daiquiris, put them in pouches. we do to-go wine tastings. so we didn't do that before. so you can get your wine tasting shipped to your house. i do a lot of virtual wine tastings with my customers. >> reporter: this is jennifer's tasting room. i'm told it tastes really good. i don't know that for a fact, because i'm still on the clock. that's only half the business. here is the other half, this great environment where people can come, sit back for a couple of hours and enjoy. tell me about the culture here. what feel do you want? >> i want it to be relaxing

here, like you're at home, at a family reunion, just somewhere where you can relax, let go, enjoy some wine and eat good food. >> it ends up being a lively place, sometimes they start coming in at 1:00 and don't ever stop, especially on a saturday. they're here until we close, which is at 10:00, sometimes a little longer. >> reporter: while business has been good at times for jennifer, the stark reality is that the pandemic is not over yet, and all small businesses need to hang on for at least another few months. do you feel you can make it to the other side? >> i hope so. i'm pretty confident i can. i have a loyal customer base. i hope it grows and continues to grow. >> reporter: you've made it this far. what advice do you have for people who are struggling right now who have the same thoughts, whether they'll have enough money to buy supplies or pay the rent or pay their employees? >> take a mental and physical

break. don't kill yourself thinking about it 24/7. at first i did that but i had to remind myself to take a break. >> i asked jennifer what her favorite part was. she said mingling with the customers. i said, what's your least favorite part? she said, being on camera. so i really appreciate her doing that interview with me. my thanks to jennifer and her remarkable family for hosting us at the irma rose winery and allowing us to tell their story. we wish them the best of luck going forward. this afternoon, i'll be sitting down with dr. ala stanford, the founder of the black doctors covid-19 consortium, for a live conversation on facebook and instagram to discuss the coronavirus vaccine rollout. your questions answered about the vaccine. that's 2:00 p.m. eastern. but first, i'm in houston to hear from small business owners about how the pandemic has affected their lives. that includes belen bailey, owner of a bakery that makes south american deserts.

she's not considered an essential business which has made for tough times. >> we are not a restaurant, this is a bakery. so it's considered like a luxury good, because you have to eat every day but you don't have to eat desserts every day. so for us, it was very, very difficult. don't settle for silver #1 for diabetic dry skin* #1 for psoriasis symptom relief* and #1 for eczema symptom relief* gold bond champion your skin ♪ but come ye back when su-- mom, dad. why's jamie here? it's sunday. sunday sing along. and he helped us get a home and auto bundle. he's been our insurance guy for five years now. he makes us feel like we're worth protecting. [ gasps ] why didn't you tell us about these savings, flo? i've literally told you a thousand times. ♪ oh, danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling ♪

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i want to show you some pictures of the plant in michigan. that's what happened in the last hour. the ups and fedex trucks pulled out, headed to airports for distribution. they're going to louisville, kentucky, and to memphis, tennessee. those are ups and fedex hubs. now what's happening at the plant is they are packing -- it seems like they're packing another truck. so far, we were told two trucks were leaving. we saw three trucks leave. then we saw that fedex truck back into bay 2. it apparently is being loaded up. there's also -- i had seen a truck going to bay 4, i don't know what's happened there, it seems to be a trailer without a tractor on it. there is more packing of more trucks that are going to be distributed. we are told that the places that are getting the more than 600 sites that are getting the vaccine will be getting them on monday and tuesday and wednesday. in other words, by wednesday, everybody who is getting these

will have gotten them. some are getting on planes to land in places like houston which has the world's biggest facility by tomorrow. i am in houston, where the coronavirus pandemic hasn't just wreaked havoc on people's health but on small businesses which face a dark winter ahead. sweets by belen is a local bakery that despite selling during the pandemic what many consider to be nonessential goods, has continued to operate with all five of its employees working tirelessly every day. now a study by stanford's business school determines that latino business owners were only half as likely as white business owners to receive ppp loans. belen herself applied for a ppp loan three times. she only got the money three months ago. now she's hoping the same strategies will be used as when the pandemic first hit, over the next three months.

belen joins me now, thank you for being with us. my team got to talk to you before we got to houston and all they could talk about was your sweets. you started with a food truck? >> in the beginning, a long time ago. >> and then you started a bakery. >> yes. >> you're from peru originally? >> yes, we sell peruvian and south american baked goods. >> and everything was going fine, you had a pretty good business going. >> it was okay. and then corona hits, and it was very challenging. very difficult. >> how did you keep your employees on? what did you do to be able to stay in business? >> they love baking and making people happy the same way i do. we have to be very creative to keep on going and use several strategies, you know. >> what are some things you do

now that you couldn't do before? people still come into the store, right? >> yes, but everything is to go, right now it's a to-go bakery, you cannot sit down. we use right now all the social media platforms, it's a very inexpensive marketing tool. it can work, you know, the community, houston is so diverse, and they have been supporting us, they have been very good to us. >> so people really want to know how to be good to their small businesses, right? people are conscious of that now. so have people told you that, that they want to keep you in business, are they looking for extra things from you, trying to find more reasons to come and get baked goods? nobody has to give me more reasons, but what are people doing for you to help you extra i stay in business? >> people still have birthdays, wedding anniversaries. people are still celebrating at home. so we have been providing all these baked goods to them, you

know, they call us, they send us messages about, you know -- so we have created, at the beginning of the pandemic, we created several combos targeting to -- >> for events, like an everyone or birthday? >> yes, a birthday. in the beginning of the pandemic, we still have several options for packaging for birthdays and anniversaries and, you know, weddings and baby showers, you know. >> so things you didn't have to think about before, you're getting more creative, giving people ideas about things to buy. >> exactly, yes. >> a lot of businesses wonder whether or not they should tell their customers that they're struggling, because people come in, they want to see your smiling face and eat your goods, they don't necessarily want to know that you have only a few bucks in the bank. have you told people you really need them in order to stay afloat? >> i guess we have been honest, especially in social media.

you can follow us on instagram, on facebook, and, you know, once you are honest, i guess people really support us, support you. we have been through -- and we're still struggling. it has not been easy. it has been very, very difficult and hard. but we really, really enjoy what we do and making people happy. i guess the customers see that, you know, and they love our sweets, they're really, really good. >> that's amazing. you can't always see people's joy behind a mask but i can see yours every time you talk about what you do and the baking that you do. thank you so much, and thanks for all you're doing and for keeping your people employed and for keeping your community fed. >> thank you. >> belen bailey is the owner of the bakery sweets by belen. if you're a small business owner like belen, you probably have some questions about navigating

these times. ideas that you've got, things to try. if that's you, the next segment is for you. we have a panel of business experts who will answer your questions about running a business during a pandemic, next on "velshi." icy perk, new car replacement, you can get a new one. (customer) that is something else. (burke) get a whole lot of something with farmers policy perks. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ that selling carsarvana, 100% online wouldn't work. but we went to work. building an experience that lets you shop

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instead of just masking it. and is made with 3x more odor fighters. with secret, keep it fresh every day. secret. hi, we're coming to you from houston. you're looking at what happened in the last hour in portage, michigan. those were ups and fedex trucks that were leaving the plant in michigan. they're headed toward hubs in nashville and in louisville. they're going to go to an airport obviously locally first, they'll end up at 660 different

sites across the united states over the next three days. some will get there by monday. tonight, monday, tuesday, and wednesday. beginning in the next hour we'll probably see another truck pull out of that plant in portage, michigan. i'm in houston right now, he'll taking a firsthand look at the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on small business. according to houston's small business administration, more than 2,000 local shops have permanently closed in the city and about 1,000 more have temporarily shut down since the pandemic hit in march. over the last few weeks, i've been traveling across the country, asking people to share their questions and concerns about navigating business during this time. i also want to share some of the solutions that they've employed during the covid crisis that seemed to work. joining me now to run through some of these ideas are "shark tank" shark and investment guru kevin o'leary and cynthia franklin, director of the berkeley center for entrepreneurship at the new york

university stearns school of business. welcome to both of you, welcome back, kevin. i want to start with you, you heard belen bailey, how she's pivoted, and jennifer protho, how they've pivoted constantly changing environment about shutdowns and people who can't come and come to their businesses the way they used to. this is the kind of thing that businesses need to think about. what are some of the good ideas that you have heard? >> well, we have a lot more clarity now than we had in march, april and may. you heard her talk about transparency and honesty, that ends up being really important if people think you're part of their community and trying to stay open and do the best you can, that's number one. but number two and above all, if you are unable to digit -- digitize or pivot to a digital communication with your customers you are not going to stay in business. she talked a lot about how she used instagram and facebook and that's exactly what small business is doing in america now, doing gio-locked

advertising on facebook and putting a lot of brand building into what they do on instagram. that represents right now, ali, about 81% of dollars spent digital on those two strategies. and why? because it works. so it's all about the digital pivot. basically for all the heat facebook is taking, it's keeping small business in america open. that's a rather unusual political situation they face. >> cynthia, i've got questions i want to bring n anti-hasin. janet says i own a professional organizing business. we are could go more in-home organizing without the client present and we've also developed a subscription service for people who want to do it themselves. we send a daily text message with a 15-minute organizing expertise. there are weekly themes so by the end of the week you have an organized space. this is some of the creative thinking we're seeing. when you have a business where you do a for client b it becomes

hard to think outside of that box and say i might be stuck in this for a while, how do i use my expertise but deliver it in a way that fits the times? >> exactly. and it's so hard to think through the fog of covid, but what hasn't changed for a lot of people are their needs, their ability to access these needs or how they access these needs has changed, but they still want to be organized, they still want good food, they still want baked goods, they still celebrate birthdays. so the trick for entrepreneurs has been to figure out how to still deliver the business services that their customers want in this challenging environment. >> kevin, jorge and lily rojas write, my wife and i own a non-toxic nail salon called lily and cata nail salon in brooklyn, new york, we shut down in mid-march due to the pandemic. we need to think of creative

ways to make our services safer when we reopen. fortunately we have a pretty good size backyard. we decided to retro fit the yard to provide outdoorman cures and pedicures, this meant erecting tents, purchasing outdoor recliners, lighting and other things to make it as comfortable as possible. now that the colder weather is here we've been able to continue our services by heating our garden salon. we've been working hard to adapt to the situation and are grateful our community has supported us by showing up. the reason i want to put this one to you, kevin, is jorge and lily had to make some capital expenditure to do this which has got to be the worst thing to have to think about right now when your income is down. we always talk about cutting expenses, but in this case they did so and it resulted in the continuation of their business so they were able to continue cash flow by doing it. >> ali, i have many businesses i've been an investor in that do exactly what they do or very close to it, particularly restaurants, hair salons, things like that. the way we've decided to

consider these capital expenditures which you detailed and you're correct they're investments in maintaining our customer database. take nails, for example. people are going to want to do their nails whether in the covid environment or not. the number one issue you have to be able to show to your customers is safety first. so imagery of these heaters, imagery of the backyard, imagery of distancing that they can see on their instagram and facebook ads to they know they're going to be safe when they're getting their nails done. the way to look at buying those heaters as we think about it for the restaurants we've got in cities like miami and new york is if we don't stay in touch with our customers during this period and show that we care and we're able to provide customer service and support, they'll forget about us, too, and we don't want that to happen. so, yes, the capx is brutal, for some reps rants its as much as $100,000. is it worth is it? absolutely. you amortize it over the next couple years. we are not going to be under this covid mess probably for at least another 9 to 12, maybe even 13 months. you have to assume as an

investor, i do, that we only have half the population inoculated by the end of august. there will still be safety concerns long lingering. think about those expenditures as something you will need for almost two years and it starts to make a lot more sense. >> and, cynthia, for a lot of customers that just didn't -- website was an ancillary thing, not something that was a priority for them, between the talk about instagram and facebook but also setting up a website. is that something worth putting cash into to spread your message? >> yes. and so what's happened as a result of the pandemic is that its accelerated some things. for companies a lot of small businesses relied on word-of-mouth, which is terrific, but it's also very passive. so what this has forced some companies to do is to be more proactive. one of the easiest and least expensive ways to help drive business is through social media and having a strong web presence. so now is a good time to work on developing that because you're going to still need it

post-covid. so you could do things like go to a wix or square space, you don't have to be technically savvy and you can get a template. you can make sure that you are on google my business so people can find you locally. there's facebook, all of the platforms have very easy to use tools to help you do it yourself so you don't have to hire an expert to help you get this done. you can do this now, especially if you have a little extra bandwidth because things are a little slower than usual. this is now a good time to start laying the foundation for being stronger for when this all passes, and this will pass. >> great advice from both of you, thank you so much for being with us this morning. i'm sorry we got trunk kalted because of all the news of the vaccine coming up, but i know that our viewers are grateful and all these small businesses across the can country are grateful for the guidance that you have. kevin o'leary, my old friend from "shark tank" and cynthia

franklin. and that does it for me in houston. you can catch me this wednesday through friday night on "the last word." next week i will be back next sunday "velshi across america" hits savannah, georgia. tune in. remember, we have an election there on january 5th, the runoff election. don't go anywhere because the premiere of "the sunday show" is next. eric holder will speak to my colleague jonathan capehart about donald trump's attempts to undermine democracy in the episode of "the sunday show." happy hanukkah for all who are watching. sunday show. happy hanukkah for all who are watching when our daughter and her kids moved in with us...

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history in the making. at this very moment a coronavirus vaccine is on its way to every corner of america. good morning, i'm jonathan capehart. this is "the sunday show." ♪